Egypt repatriates 245 stranded nationals from Abu Dhabi

CAIRO – 29 May 2020: Marsa Alam International Airport, in the southeast of Egypt, has received an exceptional flight carrying 245 Egyptians from the United Arab Emirates, as part of Egypt’s plan to repatriate all stranded Egyptians abroad over the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

The plane landed in the airport on Thursday evening, coming from the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.

The expatriated arrivals have been tested for coronavirus and were moved to a hotel to be quarantined for seven days.

Since the coronavirus crisis started, EgyptAir, the Egyptian flag carrier, has operated many exceptional flights to several countries, including the US, UK, Maldives, Kuwait, South Sudan and Kenya, to bring back stranded Egyptians abroad.

On April 22nd, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi noted that around 3,500 Egyptians are stranded abroad over coronavirus, affirming that authorities are committed to bringing them back despite "hard circumstances".

This comes while Egypt has witnessed a major rise in coronavirus cases during the past period. Assistant Health Minister Mohamed Fawzy said the next period will see a peak of coronavirus infections in Egypt.

However, he said the quarantine hospitals nationwide still have vacant places for new cases and that the medical and preventive requirements are available in large quantities.

Egypt recorded 1,127 new coronavirus cases Thursday, raising the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in Egypt to 20,793.

Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said in the daily briefing that 29 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 845.

As many as 154 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 5,359 so far, the spokesman said.

The number of coronavirus patients who had now been retested for the virus and received negative results has reached 6,019, he added.